Is Principal Nate supposed to be “slow” or something? I mean Bull JUST EXPLAINED THE BASIS OF THE COMPLAINT, did he not? I mean having a seldom-seen character adding nothing to a story is an old FW standby and all but this is insane. Perhaps having Nate’s question appear in panel one would have been somewhat more sensible but then we might have missed out on that boffo punchline, which would have been a real tragedy, as I hate seeing such hilarity ending up on the (guffaw) cutting room floor.

Coming tomorrow: the characters talk about the premise some more, but you already knew that, didn’t you?

Man, today’s strip just reeks of padding. What are the Vegas odds that this storyline will be 2-3 straight weeks of meandering, half-baked controversy, before it peters out, and Batiuk goes back to writing about something involving Les and Dead Lisa?

You know, usually when most people complain about FW it’s in regards to it being horrible depressing, and terrible things happening all the time to the characters. I LONG for that to be the case again. At least something would be happening. Now it’s just days of repetition, like the entire first panel, with no jokes. And it still has an air of melancholy and self-importance around it which makes it even more intolerable. Ten years ago this storyline would’ve ended with Bull having a massive heart attack after being confronted by the irate parent. Now, I guarantee it’ll end with smirks at Montoni’s.

Someone on Comics Kingdom suggested that Batiuk believes that bullying is result of weak children not being able to handle life. I believe that Westview is ‘bullying’ the Fighting Chances because they are not supposed to win. People expect that a group of toddlers could take Bushka’s team and are trying to force them back to the basement where they ‘belong,’

What is cellular phone video showing Bull growling “Against this team we should have twice this many, now lets run it up! Remember, it’s not worth winning if you can’t win big!” during a second half timeout?

I’ll take plot developments more interesting than the one we are getting for $400, Alex.

Actually, I think Tom Batiuk has some accuracy here. My college football team used to be so awful that an opposing team took a knee in side the 5-yard line at the end of a blowout. That was embarrassing and had some wondering if the opposing team was engaged in poor sportsmanship.

There was also a game where the team emptied its bench completely at halftime. The fourth-string running back still gained almost 200 yards, and the final score was 80-7. The other side could have easily eclipsed 100 if it was so inclined.l

The idea that the Goats are now a juggernaut isn’t bad in and of itself, it’s the intensely boring execution of the idea that’s the problem. Again we see Batom come up with a premise and stop right there, endlessly rehashing it over and over instead of developing even a simple story around it. Finding ideas isn’t his problem, expanding upon them is.

Dang if that isn’t some A+ artwork today. In the 3 panels, Bull resembles (in order): a Muppet, himself, and the perfect Alfred Hitchcock silhouette. Actually, the strip is much funnier if you read it with Hitchcock’s perpetually stuffed up voice.